Yeoman Farmer Definition Us History
The word appears in middle english as yemen or yoman and is perhaps a contraction of yeng man or yong man meaning young man or attendant geoffrey chaucer s canterbury tales late 14th century.
Yeoman farmer definition us history. A petty officer performing chiefly clerical duties in the us navy. The yeoman was the term for independent farmers in the u s. A yeoman was usually a landholder but could also be a retainer guard attendant or subordinate official. Yeoman in english history a class intermediate between the gentry and the labourers.
The traditional values of the yeoman farmers made them key figures in the republican vision for america. They also represented the majority of the white farmers during the revolutionary era. In the late 18th and early 19th century. The yeoman have been intensely studied by specialists in american social history and the history of republicanism the term fell out of common use after 1840 and is now used only by historians.
Yeoman definition a petty officer in a navy having chiefly clerical duties in the u s. The jeffersonians believed in democracy and equality of political opportunity for white male citizens with a priority for the yeoman farmer and the plain folk. An attendant servant or lesser official in a royal or noble household. Examples of yeoman in the following topics.
An assistant or other subordinate as of a sheriff. In fact along with the artisans yeoman farmers made up the majority of the white male population during the american revolution. In the united states yeomen were identified in the 18th and 19th centuries as non slaveholding small landowning family farmers. A farmer who cultivates his own land especially a member of a.
Honest virtuous hardworking and independent. A yeoman of the guard. The jeffersonians believed in democracy and equality of political opportunity especially for the yeoman farmer and the plain folk. A man who farmed his own land meaning pronunciation translations and examples.
These same values made yeomen farmers central to the republican vision of the new nation. Whether they engaged in subsistence or commercial agriculture they controlled far. Because family farmers didn t exploit large numbers of other laborers and because they owned their own property they were. In areas of the southern united states where land was poor like east tennessee the landowning yeomen were typically subsistence farmers but some managed to grow crops for market.
The jeffersonians believed in democracy and equality of political opportunity for white male citizens with a priority for the yeoman farmer and the plain folk. Examples of yeoman farmers in the following topics.